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21-letter words containing w, h

  • the throwaway society — a society full of excessive consumption and waste of food, products, etc
  • the women's land army — a unit of women recruited to do agricultural work in the United Kingdom during World War I and World War II
  • the yellow brick road — the road to success or happiness (in the film the Wizard of Oz the yellow brick road leads to Oz)
  • thermal power station — a power station in which heat is converted into electricity
  • thin end of the wedge — anything unimportant in itself that implies the start of something much larger
  • three-toed woodpecker — either of two woodpeckers of the genus Picoides, of the Northern Hemisphere, having only three toes on each foot.
  • threshold wage policy — a policy whereby wages are increased in accordance with inflation
  • throw one's hat at it — to give up all hope of getting or achieving something
  • throw sb a curve ball — If someone throws you a curve or throws you a curve ball, they surprise you by doing something that you do not expect.
  • throw someone a curve — a continuously bending line, without angles.
  • to blow sth wide open — to expose something
  • to give the game away — If someone or something gives the game away, they reveal a secret or reveal their feelings, and this puts them at a disadvantage.
  • to let your hair down — If you let your hair down, you relax completely and enjoy yourself.
  • to look the other way — If you say that someone looks the other way, you are critical of them because they pay no attention to something unpleasant that is happening, when they should be dealing with it properly.
  • to my way of thinking — You add to my way of thinking to a statement in order to indicate that you are giving your opinion.
  • to put the wind up sb — If something or someone puts the wind up you, they frighten or worry you.
  • to rub shoulders with — If you rub shoulders with famous people, you meet them and talk to them. You can also say that you rub elbows with someone, especially in American English.
  • to set foot somewhere — If you say that someone sets foot in a place, you mean that they enter it or reach it, and you are emphasizing the significance of their action. If you say that someone never sets foot in a place, you are emphasizing that they never go there.
  • to sink without trace — If you say that someone or something sinks without trace or sinks without a trace, you mean that they stop existing or stop being successful very suddenly and completely.
  • to take the long view — If you take the long view, you consider what is likely to happen in the future over a long period, rather than thinking only about things that are going to happen soon.
  • to throw in the towel — If you throw in the towel, you stop trying to do something because you realize that you cannot succeed.
  • twelve-tone technique — a modern system of tone relationships in which the 12 tones of an octave are not centered around any one tone, but are unified by a selected order of tones for a given composition.
  • twist the lion's tail — a large, usually tawny-yellow cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa and southern Asia, having a tufted tail and, in the male, a large mane.
  • up hill and down dale — strenuously and persistently
  • up to the elbows with — busily occupied with; deeply immersed in
  • washington's birthday — February 22, formerly observed as a legal holiday in most states of the U.S. in honor of the birth of George Washington.
  • weak head normal form — (reduction, theory)   (WHNF) A lambda expression is in weak head normal form (WHNF) if it is a head normal form (HNF) or any lambda abstraction. I.e. the top level is not a redex. The term was coined by Simon Peyton Jones to make explicit the difference between head normal form (HNF) and what graph reduction systems produce in practice. A lambda abstraction with a reducible body, e.g. \ x . ((\ y . y+x) 2) is in WHNF but not HNF. To reduce this expression to HNF would require reduction of the lambda body: (\ y . y+x) 2 --> 2+x Reduction to WHNF avoids the name capture problem with its need for alpha conversion of an inner lambda abstraction and so is preferred in practical graph reduction systems. The same principle is often used in strict languages such as Scheme to provide call-by-name evaluation by wrapping an expression in a lambda abstraction with no arguments: D = delay E = \ () . E The value of the expression is obtained by applying it to the empty argument list:
  • weinberg-salam theory — electroweak theory.
  • well-ordering theorem — the theorem of set theory that every set can be made a well-ordered set.
  • west lothian question — the apparent inconsistency that members of parliament who represent Scottish constituencies are eligible to vote at Westminster on matters that relate only to England, whereas members of parliament from English constituencies are not eligible to vote on Scottish matters
  • what price something? — what are the chances of something happening now?
  • what the future holds — If you wonder what the future holds, you wonder what will happen in the future.
  • when the dust settles — If you say that something will happen when the dust settles, you mean that a situation will be clearer after it has calmed down. If you let the dust settle before doing something, you let a situation calm down before you try to do anything else.
  • whip-and-tongue graft — a graft prepared by cutting both the scion and the stock in a sloping direction and inserting a tongue in the scion into a slit in the stock.
  • whistling in the dark — If you say that someone is whistling in the dark, you mean that they are trying to remain brave and convince themselves that the situation is not as bad as it seems.
  • white-crowned sparrow — a North American sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, having black and white stripes on the head.
  • white-knuckle paddler — an inexpert and timid canoeist.
  • wholesale price index — an indicator of price changes in the wholesale market
  • wildlife photographer — someone that specializes in taking photographs of wild animals, especially in their natural habitats, and plants
  • william the conqueror — ("the Conqueror") 1027–87, duke of Normandy 1035–87; king of England 1066–87 (son of Robert I, duke of Normandy).
  • with a capital letter — (used to give emphasis to a statement)
  • with one's bare hands — If someone does something with their bare hands, they do it without using any weapons or tools.
  • with sb's compliments — If you say that you are giving someone something with your compliments, you are saying in a polite and fairly formal way that you are giving it to them, especially as a gift or a favour.
  • with the exception of — except for, save
  • without qualification — If something is stated or accepted without qualification, it is stated or accepted as it is, without the need for any changes.
  • worth someone's while — worth someone's time, consideration, etc.; profitable in some way
  • writ of habeas corpus — law: petition for hearing
  • yellow-throated vireo — an olive-green vireo, Vireo flavifrons, of eastern North America, having a bright yellow throat and breast.
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